Over-focusing On Clarity Can Get In The Way of Achieving Your Objective

At the time of this post, the feature photos of me on my website were about five years old. I really liked those photos. They captured the essence of what I wanted to convey - colour, mood, energy. 

But they were five years old. Of course I’ve changed and I want the representation of me to be  accurate. Or, speaking more directly, I don’t want to pretend I’m younger than I am.

As I get older, I keep taking on new challenges, discovering new aspects of myself and becoming even more fascinated with what’s possible. I don’t want to ‘fake’ how old I look because I’m proud of who I am - body, mind and spirit.

For many years I kept my hair super short. I don’t have the patience to style it. I wanted wash and go! Then Covid arrives and the hair salons were on lock down for about 14 months where I live. Like many women, my hair grew longer and I came to like it. People told me to keep it longer. 

Now I had a dilemma. How would I get new photos for my website when face to face with a photographer wasn’t possible? I can take a decent photo of myself on my phone using my remote to click but my photos don’t have the same ‘je ne sais quoi’ that professional photographers are able to achieve. 

Enter the talented Julia Mae Hunt. (No relation but I’d love it if she was!) Julia is a professional photographer who, like many of us, pivoted her business to work with clients over zoom, helping with set up and styling and taking the photos through screen shots. She edits as best she can given the limitations of using zoom however the sharp definition of a camera photo is missing. 

Julia took some great shots of me! She captured exactly what I was looking for. However I was disappointed with the ‘blurriness’ of the photos. Because I SHOULD have clear professional photos on my website. That’s the rule, right?!! 

Well, I got thinking about this ‘rule’ and realized that focusing on the blur, means I missed the clarity of the opportunity with these photos. (Puns all intended.) 

Let me translate for you. When we are so focused on a particular outcome with ‘clear’ expectations of what we want, we can miss the possibility in front of us. The photos are perfect. Yes with a bit of blur, but life is blurry. Sometimes a soft focus helps us see the bigger picture or deeper meaning.

When we are so focused on a particular outcome with ‘clear’ expectations of what we want, we can miss the possibility in front of us.

In yoga, there’s a name for this - drishti. It’s when you maintain soft focus on a point to help with balance and maintain flow in the body even in stillness. As the yogi Rodney Yee says, “steady with the mind, fluid with the body” to maintain balance. Even in stillness the body moves and we develop adaptability, fluidity, resilience and calm.

Back to my photos. We’re just coming out of Covid. Maintaining a soft focus on my goals and aspirations is how I will see my way forward. The photos Julia provided remind me not to get hung up on minute details and to hold a soft focus for what the future holds in the coming weeks and months. A soft focus provides clarity on how to navigate the uncertainty before us.

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While a bit of blur can be helpful as I've shared in my story above, sometimes too much blur makes it challenging to figure out which direction move.

In my Finding Possibility in Uncertainty mini course, I share a simple, easy to follow process that will help you figure out your first step. That first step will get you past the inertia of feeling stuck and open you up to possibility. You can take an initial step right now towards Finding Possibility here!